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3 Stocks Reiterated As A Buy: MDLZ, MRK, MCD

Merck (NYSE:
MRK) has been reiterated by TheStreet Ratings as a buy with a ratings score of A. According to TheStreet Ratings team: The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, good cash flow from operations, expanding profit margins and solid stock price performance. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income.

The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.50, is low and is below the industry average, implying that there has been successful management of debt levels. Along with the favorable debt-to-equity ratio, the company maintains an adequate quick ratio of 1.38, which illustrates the ability to avoid short-term cash problems.

Net operating cash flow has significantly increased by 67.27% to $3,026.00 million when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, MERCK & CO has also vastly surpassed the industry average cash flow growth rate of 11.17%.

The gross profit margin for MERCK & CO is currently very high, coming in at 76.93%. Regardless of MRK's high profit margin, it has managed to decrease from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 6.89% trails the industry average.

MERCK & CO's earnings per share declined by 13.3% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has suffered a declining pattern of earnings per share over the past two years. However, we anticipate this trend to reverse over the coming year. During the past fiscal year, MERCK & CO reported lower earnings of $1.46 versus $2.00 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($3.44 versus $1.46).

MRK, with its decline in revenue, slightly underperformed the industry average of 0.6%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 3.5%. The declining revenue appears to have seeped down to the company's bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.

Merck & Co., Inc. provides various health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products worldwide. Merck has a market cap of $164.2 billion and is part of the health care sector and drugs industry. Shares are up 11.7% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Friday.